A Highlands Harrods of the North

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In the beginning, quite frankly, most people thought Mark Birkbeck had lost his marbles. It was 1992, the middle of the last recession, and surely only a madman would think of building a posh shop bang in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands, with nothing but deer on the horizon.

How wrong they were. Mr Birkbeck’s vision, the House of Bruar, poised on a fast bend on the A9 between Inverness and Perth, has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Britain.

Royalty incognito, along with all kinds of celebrities, are among the 1.1 million people